A Change In Eye Colour
by Skyla Malfoy
Summary: Harry Potter has returned for his sixth year at Hogwarts. He's noticed a change in his Slytherin nemesis, Draco Malfoy, however and is convinced he is behind the attacks happening at Hogwarts. Strangely Draco is suspicious of Harry for the same reasons.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Three crystal glasses filled with pumpkin juice rattled on their tray as Effie the house elf climbed her way up the badly lit staircase of her master's house. She seemed tiny next to the width of the stairs and with each strained step the glasses would slide back and forward on the tray, juice spilling slightly over the edges. The house had an ominously high ceiling and there were haunting rips and cracks in the walls which gave the impression that the house wasn't aging well. Even though the whole house smelt of expensive wood polish, it was obvious that the staircase Effie was climbing had not had its railings polished in who knew how long. Every time the elf disturbed another step, a small cloud of dust would rise and fall around her foot.

"Oh," she squeaked as she reached the top and saw a particularly large droplet of the orange liquid slop onto the floor. She rushed off down the hallway her lips quivering in distress and a mind reeling with guilt over the state of the floor behind her. The voices of her master's son and his guests were echoing down the hall. As the tray chattered in her hands she made her way towards a darkly painted door at the end of the corridor. Her master's son and his friends sounded as though they were deep in an important discussion and she deliberated as to whether she should enter the room or not. Maybe she should wait for them to finish discussing their business? Or maybe she should try to slip into the room without being noticed and put the tray somewhere discreet? Or maybe she should leave the tray of drinks outside the door and hurry away again? She had been told to take them drinks but not to be a nuisance as they were "dealing with important matters." Instead the elf decided to stand and listen to work out whether it was safe to go inside the door.

"The Dark Lord has chosen us," came a boy's voice. "He has chosen us and we ought to feel honoured."

"I still don't understand why he wants us to do this," a second voice sounded, belonging to a boy also, although slightly deeper than the first.

The first voice spoke again, "I told you! I told you that he needs us because he can't get inside himself."

"See that is what I don't understand," the deeper voice spoke, "Why can't he find a better way of breaking in without having to use us?"

"Honestly, you're going on like you don't appreciate the fact that the Dark Lord himself has trusted us with this," the first voice snapped. Then Effie heard the sound of her young master speaking.

"Think of how well we may be rewarded if we succeed with our plans," he declared with a hint of smugness in his voice. "Think about what this could mean for our families. We'll be known amongst all of the Dark Lord's followers as the three boys who finally managed to do what so many others have attempted to do before us." Effie's ear was now pressed up against the door, the tray balancing dangerously in one hand as her large pointed ears strained to listen in on the three boy's conversation.

"The castle is protected with all kinds of spells and enchantments. Powerful ones. That's the reason the Death Eaters can't just walk into the school. That's why he needs us. We're the only people who can attack from within Hogwarts without being suspected," the first voice began again.

"But people might start to suspect us?" protested voice number two. "What if we get discovered? What if we get caught?"

"Stop bloody worrying so much!" the young master hissed. "We're not going to get caught because we're going to have it all planned out perfectly." There was a loud creak in the floor boards as someone in the room stood up and began to pace. "Everything is going to be fine. All we have to do is make sure we're careful. We have to go about school as normal as much as possible. People will have no reason to suspect it's us."

"What happens if we fail? The Dark Lord will kill us! I know he will. I don't know if I want to do this," the second voice continued to argue.

"You really don't get it do you?" the young master growled, "If we refuse to attempt what the Dark Lord has asked us to do then he'll kill us anyway. We don't have much of a choice!"

"Either way we're going to die basically" grumbled the second voice.

"For fucks sake, we're not going to be killed because we _are_ going to succeed. Just think about the good side of this situation. Think of the praise we'll receive from the Dark Lord and our parents and the rest of the Death Eaters if we're the ones to finally do this. Right now the other Death Eaters won't take us seriously. Our parents still think we're just kids and that we can't join the Dark Lord's followers properly yet. I can't wait to finally be able to wear a dark mark and to join in with the killings and the raids. I can't wait to torture muggles and…"

"Don't you think that we'll be the first to be suspected? After all, our parents are known Death Eaters. If Voldemort's work is being done from within the school, of course we'll be the first to blame."

"That is why we'll be sneaky. We'll think of a way, I know we will."

Now the first boy spoke again, "The Dark Lord gave this to us himself. Personally I'm looking forward to killing some mudbloods."

Suddenly Effie's whole body froze and her fingers forgot to grip the bottom of the tray. Her heart was racing and her already large eyes were even wider than normal with panic. An almighty crash rang through the hall as the tray and glasses smashed to the floor and shards of glass sprayed in all directions and pumpkin juice splashed into the cracks of the floor.

"What was that?" one of the boys yelled. Effie stood fast, terrified, her smock covered in juice as she heard her master's footsteps approaching the door.

"I don't know. Go and check!"

Harry's entire body was coursing with rage and panic. He stood fast staring at the black door behind which he could hear the footsteps of one of the three boys making their way closer. Just as the door flew open Harry was thrown backwards which a nauseating lurch. Then he cried out loudly in pain as, with a deafening crack, his head slammed against the ground behind him.

"Harry!"

The tall ceiling of the hallway he'd been staring at spiralled away from him and he could see only darkness.

"Harry! Harry!" a familiar voice was calling his name. Harry's eyes flew open and his lungs rushed full of air as he blinked in the harsh sunlight.

"Harry, are you ok?" Hermione was leaning over him with an alarmed look on her face.

"Hermione…what..?" Harry groaned loudly as he pulled himself off the floor only to feel his head scream in pain. He felt himself begin to fall down again when Hermione's arms caught him around the waist and prevented him from hitting his head a second time. He felt Hermione stagger slightly under his weight before another pair of arms were grabbing his shoulders and lifting him back on his feet again.

"Bloody hell Harry! You need to sit down," Ron's voice exclaimed. Harry felt his friends let go of him as he was landed upright on the seat of the compartment. Harry finally peeled his eyes fully open and soon found that he'd managed to keep his glasses on because he could clearly make out his two best friends crouched in front of him. Hermione looked completely panicked while Ron looked almost amused.

"Honestly Harry, we leave you alone for five minutes and you can't even keep yourself from cracking your head open on the floor," teased Ron as he sat down in one of the seats opposite him.

"Don't be ridiculous Ron! Harry's head is not cracked open. He'll be ok, he's probably just a bit concussed," Hermione reassured, more to herself than anyone.

"I don't understand," Harry began, "how…why…"

"You fell asleep mate. The train must have moved suddenly and you fell off your seat and hit your head on the floor," Ron started to explain.

"Oh right," Harry tentatively rubbed the back of his head and sucked in air through his teeth as he winced in pain. His cheeks began to pink-en in embarrassment as he realised what he'd done.

"I guess I must have fallen asleep as I was waiting for you guys to get back," Harry mumbled trying to hide his face with his hands. Hermione leaned forward and placed a hand gently on Harry's knee.

"Should I go and find a teacher or something Harry? I'm sure there's an adult on this train that could help you."

"No Hermione! Its fine," Harry assured her more forcefully then he'd meant to.

"Are you sure? Would you like me to have a go at healing it for you?" Harry pulled his hands away from his face only to have Hermione gasp at him.

"Harry, you're bleeding!" she cried. Even Ron looked worried now.

"No, I'm not," Harry insisted. "I'm actually…" Harry stopped mid-sentence as he realised the inside of his hand was covered in his own blood. Hermione rushed forward and carefully grasped the sides of Harry's face for a closer look.

"You've cut your forehead," she announced. Carefully she brushed back a section of Harry's dark hair her eyes narrowing as she inspected the damage.

"It's not really that bad. It's only small. There's just a lot of blood because it's a head wound. Here just let me…" she trailed off as she stood up and pulled her wand out of her right pocket. She aimed at Harry's head and with a look of concentration on her face and began to utter a healing charm under her breath. A strange warm feeling swept across Harry's forehead and the pain he'd felt at the back of his head moments ago started to fade away. After a few moments Hermione stopped muttering and lowered her wand.

"There," she murmured gently, "does it feel any better?"

"Loads," Harry traced his fingers over the cut on his head and could feel no more than the last remains of a healed scratch.

"The blood is mostly cleared up," said Hermione looking pleased. "It's not as well healed as it would have been if a professor has done for you. My healing charms are still a bit iffy. If its still hurts then maybe…"

"Hermione, I promise it doesn't hurt at all. You did a wonderful job. Thank you," Harry insisted, smiling feebly at her.

"Your healing charms are excellent Hermione," Ron persisted, "You're the only witch or wizard our age that can heal cuts as well as you can."

"Well, thanks you two but I really think you're being generous. I still can't heal things completely. You can still see the mark where the cut was," Hermione babbled on but I hint of pride was creeping onto her face at the praise she was receiving from her friends.

"Do you think anyone will notice?" Harry asked, brushing his hand over the side of his head again.

"Probably not. It's alright mate it's not that obvious now that the bleedings stopped," said Ron.

"If you leave it alone, it'll disappear soon," Hermione stepped back from Harry to take the seat next to Ron.

"So anyway, how was your prefect meeting?" Harry suggested trying to change the subject.

"Oh you know the usual. We met the new prefects for this year and we patrolled the train for a while making sure all the first years were ok," began Ron.

"Yeah, we broke up a gang of second year Slytherins who were terrorising another Hufflepuff girl. They'd stolen her wand and were trying to pretend they hadn't seen it. She was really upset…"

"…And then Hermione was amazing," Ron cut in, "she told them all off and they're all terrified of her."

Harry nodded only half listening as Ron and Hermione continued recounting the events of their prefect patrol. Inside his head Harry was trying to come to terms with what had just happened to him. He hadn't even remembered falling asleep in the first place but Hermione and Ron had been gone for ages so he must have drifted off in his seat waiting for them to return. Before he'd woken up Harry could remember seeing a large black door and a tall, dark hallway. Then he'd fallen backwards and hit his head and woken up on the floor of the train. The thing that Harry was most confused about was that he had the peculiar notion of dreaming about something that had made him incredibly scared just before he'd woken. It was something important, he knew it was, but he honestly couldn't remember what. He felt incredibly frustrated by his inability to recall exactly what it was that had sent his heart racing moments before he'd woken up. He also couldn't believe that he'd been stupid enough to fall off his own seat while he'd slept.

"…and then you wouldn't believe what Hermione said to them next, she told them that if they didn't…"

"…Harry..? Harry what's wrong?" Hermione cut Ron off. Ron stopped talking and looked up to catch Harry staring out the window with a pained expression on his face.

"Oh, nothing, I must just be a bit drowsy from hitting my head," Harry said, "I think I'm just going to go for a walk actually…"

"Are you sure that's a good idea Harry?" Hermione said concerned. "Maybe you ought to stay sitting down for a bit longer, at least till you're feeling better." Harry made an attempt to ignore her.

"I won't be long," he said and before Hermione could pull him back into his seat Harry wrenched the door to their compartment open and stumbled out into the aisle of the Hogwarts Express. The door clicked shut behind him as he started to make his way down the train, unsure exactly of why or where he was heading to, only knowing that he needed some space to himself for a while. He continued trudging down the train glancing into the windows of the compartments filled with other Hogwarts students. In one cabin he saw some of his other Gryffindor friends talking excitedly amongst themselves. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas were sitting with Ginny. As Harry passed their slightly ajar compartment door he heard snippets of a debate over which house was going to lose the Quidditch cup this year.

"Of course it'll be the Hufflepuffs," he heard Ginny insisting. "They haven't won the cup, well, ever."

"You're probably right, but I really hope its Slytherin. I'd love to see them lose. Imagine their faces if they found themselves losing to Hufflepuff," scoffed Dean.

"It's never going to happen guys. Their team is too good," Seamus said.

"Not as good as ours will be," Ginny laughed as she brushed her ginger hair out of her eyes. "We've got Harry as seeker. We can't possibly lose with Harry."

Harry felt his stomach tighten at hearing this. He wasn't afraid to admit that he was good at flying but to hear Ginny talking so confidently about his abilities made him feel nervous. He hoped the rest of the Gryffindoors didn't think the same way. He didn't want to think that he'd be blamed if they lost to Slytherin this year. Harry gritted his teeth and kept walking down the corridor. _All he had to do was make sure there was no way he lost to Slytherin this year, no god damn way! _he thought to himself. He'd make sure he trained really hard this year he decided. He'd make sure he wouldn't get into any more trouble that would make him miss practices.

Before he realised how far he'd walked he'd reached the end of the carriage. He stood there for a while staring back down the aisle of the train and wondering whether he ought to return to Ron and Hermione. He began to walk back down the train when he stopped and changed his mind. He spun around again and suddenly he felt light-headed. Clutching his forehead he sunk to the floor and sat with his head buried in his knees and his back leaning up against the door to the next carriage. For several minutes Harry sat clutching his own legs and allowing the rattle of the train around him to shake him gently from side to side. He willed desperately for the dizziness in his head to clear and tried to focus on the click-clacking of the train on its tracks beneath him. He was just beginning to feel better when…

"…Potter!" It was the last thing Harry wanted to hear, the painfully familiar voice of the Slytherin student he'd hated for years.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Having a little snooze are we Potter?" spat the voice of Draco Malfoy. Harry opened his eyes to see Malfoy standing over him already dressed in his house robes and glaring down with a smirk on his lips.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it was rude to block doorways?" Malfoy sneered. Harry couldn't move, he just sat and gaped at Malfoy completely stunned. "I'm serious Potter you'd better move or else I swear I have no problem standing on you and breaking both your legs." Harry just stared at the other boy taking in the shocking changes in his appearance. Harry was sure that Malfoy hadn't looked like that at the end of last year. He hadn't been as tall as he was now. His hair was much lighter blonde than it has ever been before and there was something about his eyes that had changed. It was almost as if…

"Get the fuck out my way!" Malfoy shouted angrily at Harry who was still on the floor. Harry finally came to his senses and hauled himself off the ground just in time as Malfoy lunged towards him. Instinctively, Harry drew his wand from his pocket and pointed it straight at the Slytherin.

"Just leave me alone," Harry screamed. The blonde boy staggered back, suddenly looking scared as he realised he was defenceless against Harry.

"Are you really going to hurt me Potter?" Malfoy jeered, "You wouldn't do it. You don't have the guts."

"You wanna bet?" Harry snarled taking a step closer to the other boy, his wand still pointed threateningly towards is chest. "I'll blast you to fucking pieces. Now just leave me alone, please!"

"I'll leave you alone as soon as you stop blocking the door I want to go through," said Malfoy trying to sound unconcerned by Harry's threat.

"Fine then," Harry snapped, slowly lowering his wand. "Go past, if that's what you want." Harry stepped to his left allowing Malfoy the room to pass him.

"I certainly will," said the other boy walking forward with a triumphant smirk on his face. As he passed by him he purposely bashed his shoulder into Harry's causing Harry to lose his balance and stagger slightly. Malfoy laughed menacingly in Harry's ear.

"Can't even stand up straight, can you Potter?" Harry glared up at Malfoy with a look of utter loathing.

"Most people can as long as they're not being pushed around by arrogant cowards like you Malfoy!" And with that Malfoy grabbed the front of Harry's shirt and slammed him backwards against the door.

"Fuck you Potter! Fuck you! I am _not_ a coward!" Malfoy exploded his angry face only centimetres from Harry's. Harry tried to lift his wand up to protect himself but found that Malfoy had his hands securely pinned back.

"Let go of me!" Harry roared. Malfoy just continued to pin Harry against the door and scowl at him. His eyes were blazing with intense anger and were boring into Harry's with a force that made his stomach feel queasy. _There was something so different about Malfoy's eyes. _Harry couldn't think what it was, but it was there. _They were usually so…so…grey? And now, now they were… almost silver? _Harry was locked so deep in thought about the colour of Malfoy's eyes that that he was surprised when they suddenly stopped staring into his and roamed to glare at Harry's forehead.

"What happened to your head Potter?" Malfoy snarled, his eyes now staring at the place where Hermione had healed Harry's cut.

"Nothing."

"What did you do to yourself? Couldn't stand up properly could you? Did you trip and fall?" Malfoy began to taunt unkindly as he laughed at Harry's head.

"Shut up!" Harry yelled and wriggled under the Slytherin boy's tight grasp, trying to free himself. Malfoy continued to jeer at him.

"Guess what Potter? You have a matching set now. You've got two scars on your forehead. You look even more ridiculous than you did before." Harry exploded in anger and managed the strength to push Malfoy off him and send him stumbling backwards. Now that he was free his hands flew up automatically to pull his fringe down over both his famous scar as well as his fresh one. He hated people pointing out his scar. He hated people talking about the mark that Voldemort had left. He especially hated it when it was Malfoy, one of the people he despised most in world. He raised his wand angrily again.

"Out of my way!" Harry shouted and he shoved angrily past the blonde boy and stormed off down the aisle of the train.

"Running away Potter?" he heard Malfoy call after him, "Who's the coward now?"

Harry balled his fists and ignored Malfoy's taunts as he continued to storm back down the train towards the cabin where Ron and Hermione were.

"What the hell happened to you?" Ron said as Harry burst back into the compartment. He was still seething with anger and was holding his wand in his hand.

"Nothing. It's just Malfoy," Harry said crossly as he put his wand back in his pocket and sat back down in his seat.

"That git!" Ron exclaimed, "What did he do to you Harry?"

"Oh, don't worry," Harry scowled, "It's nothing he just threatened to break my legs and teased me about…" Harry trailed off as he lifted his hand to his forehead, "…Never mind."

"You need to learn to ignore him Harry," Hermione began leaning forward. "He's just a coward. Don't let him get to you."

"Cheers Hermione," Harry smiled weakly up at his best friends. A thought suddenly struck Harry.

"Actually," Harry said, "neither of you have seen Malfoy today yet have you?"

"Um, no," Ron said.

"I haven't either," nodded Hermione.

"In fact," Ron said, "He wasn't at the prefect meeting earlier, which is odd because he loves abusing his position by terrorizing the younger students on prefect patrol."

"He was probably just terrorizing first years in a different carriage to us," suggested Hermione.

"Or fixing his hair in a mirror somewhere," added Ron bitterly.

"Why did you ask Harry?"

"Oh, it's just that, well, he looked…" Harry muttered trying to think of a way to explain to his friends the change he had noticed in Malfoy. "…He looked, he looked really different."

"What do you mean, different?" Hermione asked, sounding curious.

"I don't know. He just was…" Harry shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. "His eyes, there was something different about his eyes…"

"His eyes?" Ron scoffed.

"Yeah...they were just….they were just…different," Harry struggled. Just then they were interrupted but someone opening the door to their compartment.

"Hey Ginny," Hermione smiled, looking up. Harry's gazed followed and he saw Ron's younger sister standing in the doorway wearing her Gryffindor robes and smiling at him.

"What are you lot still wearing your clothes for?" she exclaimed, "We're almost there, you need to change into your uniform!"

As the three Gryffindor friends were hurriedly pulling their school robes on Harry's thoughts couldn't help but stray back to the way Malfoy's eyes had looked as they'd glared into his own. _Could Malfoy's eyes really have changed colour? _Harry suddenly winced as he pulled his jumper on, only to have the back of his head re-flood with the pain of hitting it on the floor. Harry rubbed the back of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut hoping that nobody else was going to notice the second mark on his forehead the same way that Malfoy had.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

When Draco Malfoy woke the following morning he felt more tired than he usually did. He couldn't decide whether it was because he had been used to getting up later over the summer or whether it was because he'd taken longer than usual to fall asleep the previous night. Either way he felt slow and groggy as he forced himself out of bed and into the shower. He rubbed shampoo into his hair and stood under the hot water mulling over the fact that he was once again back at school. Back for another year at Hogwarts, he sighed to himself.

Draco certainly hadn't missed the change in his appearance over the summer. Looking at himself in the bathroom mirror he could see that his hair had gotten lighter, he'd grown several inches taller and there was something else too. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on. His parents had certainly noticed a change in him as well. His mother had spent the good second half of the summer cooing over how tall her son had grown and how very handsome he was becoming. At the time Draco had brushed this off, not wanting to be fussed over by his mother in such an embarrassing way but secretly he had felt quite pleased with himself. Even his friends on the train yesterday seemed to have noticed that something about Draco had changed. Pansy Parkinson in particular had been overly friendly to him and he was now concluding that his recent growth spurt was a possible contributing factor to this behaviour. She'd even tried to stroke his hair, he remembered feeling slightly disgusted. He hated anyone else touching his hair.

At breakfast in the great hall Draco found he'd lost most of his appetite. He just sat playing with his food and staring off into space. The hall was packed full of excited students all stuffing their mouths with food and swapping stories about their summers. Owls were hooting and swooping overhead dropping letters and packages to students sitting at their various house tables. The thought of being back in this ridiculous place was making him feel sick. It wasn't helping that Pansy and another of his closest friends, Blaise Zabini were sitting either side of him and having an excited discussion about their school subjects for the year.

"…anyway, I'm taking potions this year. I was worried you know, that I wouldn't get an Outstanding in my OWLS last year, but I scraped through," Pansy was droning on beside him.

"Potions? I'm not taking potions. I'm doing Defence Against the Dark Arts instead. It's going to be a lot more useful than brewing boil curers and silly things like that," Blaise was ranting on to his other side.

_Honestly_, Draco thought to himself, _why did they sound so happy to be back here? _He peered down at the rest of the Slytherin students at his table, plates piled with toast and sausages and half empty goblets of pumpkin juice. Most of them seemed to be acting like everything was normal, like nothing had changed since last year. _Maybe everything was still normal for them_, Draco sighed to himself. _They probably hadn't spent the last few months of their lives living in fear. _

Just then Draco was startled slightly by a hand on his left shoulder.

"Is something wrong Draco?" Pansy was staring at him looking rather concerned.

"No I'm fine thanks," he mumbled and tried to shrug Pansy's hand away.

"It's just that you've been rather quiet…"

"Tired, I guess," he said dismissively as he pushed his almost untouched plate of food further away from himself.

"You were looking distracted just now," Pansy persisted, "You looked a bit worried actually."

"Don't be silly, I'm completely alright, I was just, I was just thinking."

Pansy didn't seem fully convinced but to Draco's relief didn't press him any further. She slowly lowered her hand from Draco and made a move to stand up from her seat.

"Come on then, time for Potions," she smiled and gestured to her sullen looking friend that he ought to get up too.

Draco impassively allowed himself to be dragged by an enthusiastic Pansy in the direction of the dungeons.

"Oh, I'm so very glad that we have Potions together this year," she chirped on as they reached the entrance to the Potions classroom. "I'm mean, it would be better if we still had Snape as our teacher of course but Potions really is my favourite subject." As they had been some of the first to leave the great hall after breakfast Pansy and Draco found the class was still empty as they entered and they were free to choose whichever table they desired to set their cauldrons up on. Just as Draco hurried forward to choose one of the tables closer to the back a voice made him look up.

"Ah, welcome, welcome, and who would you two be?" A man with an almost ridiculous looking moustache, a rather round stomach and wearing a robe in a deep shade of plum appeared from behind the desk at the front of the room -the desk that had belonged to Snape until now.

"Professor Slughorn," he announced, "I'm your new Potions master for this year. Take a seat please and we will leave further introduction till the rest of the class arrives." Draco wasn't quite sure what to make of this new professor. He looked rather daft with his shiny bald head and he was wearing a shirt with a yellow bow tie under his purple robes. Draco was not sure he abided by people who wore things like yellow bow ties. Nevertheless he followed Pansy to a seat and started preparing himself for the lesson, taking out his text books and his brass scales and placing them carefully on the table.

By the time the rest of the Potions students had arrived, Professor Slughorn had flicked his wand at the direction of the chalk board and the instructions for a complicated poison antidote appeared in a fat-lettered scrawl. A scrawl which Draco intelligently noted seemed to perfectly reflect the appearance of this round-bellied wizard.

"Find a seat everybody and get your things out. You will be turning to page 14 of your books today," Slughorn said as he looked round at the nearly full classroom of sixth year students. Pansy had begun to arrange a selection of glass vials into size order and Draco was closely reading page 14 to himself and trying to make an attempt at understanding exactly what he would have to do to make this potion.

It was a good ten minutes into the lesson and Draco had already begun cutting up his rat's tail into thin slices when a loud bang and rush of air made him look up from what he was doing just in time to see the door burst open emitting two flustered looking boys into the room.

"Typical," Draco muttered under his breath, loudly enough for Pansy to hear, who sniggered. Harry Potter stood at the back of the classroom with a slightly panicked expression on his face as though he'd been rushing frantically to arrive where he was now. Trailing him, as always, was his red-haired weasel of a friend, Ron.

"Harry!" Slughorn beamed opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Come in, come in m'boy." Harry looked around at the rest of the class. His chest was still heaving slightly and his dark fringe was hanging in disarray over his eyes, the back of his hair stuck out at odd angles. Ron was looking equally as ruffled.

"We're brewing poison antidotes today so you'll need your cauldrons out. Find a seat somewhere boys and get started. The others have already had almost a quarter hour to prepare their ingredients," he stepped forward and spoke directly to Harry now in a slightly quieter voice, "but don't worry Harry. I know you're more than capable of catching up."

Draco let out a low groan. _Of course Harry sodding Potter was Slughorn's new favourite student already._

Draco watched as Potter's eyes scanned the classroom and came to rest on the table where he and Pansy were sitting at a table to themselves. To his surprise Potter pursed his lips slightly and after using his index finger to adjust his glasses further up his nose began striding towards him and Pansy. Confused, Draco glanced around the room and was suddenly hit with the realisation that the only free seats left in the class where the two opposite Pansy and himself. Draco huffed loudly not caring if his annoyance was made known to the new arrivals as Harry and Ron set their things down on the table in front of them.

"Don't flatter yourself in thinking we chose to sit next to you, Malfoy," Ron said as he took out his books, followed by several pieces of crumpled parchment. He appeared to be just as irritated by the current seating arrangements as Draco was.

"Well, _I_ certainly didn't invite you over here," hissed Draco as he snatched his textbooks further away from Ron and Harry's side of the table.

"We know that!"

"What are you even doing here anyway, Weasel?" Draco sneered across the table, "I didn't think you'd be smart enough to get into this class."

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Ron snapped. Ron's eyes quickly looked down and Draco was pleased at how uncomfortable he appeared to have made him. Harry remained strangely quiet, Draco thought, as he began to sort through jars of ingredients on the table in front of him, pausing every so often to pull strands of his brown hair nervously down over his forehead.

Draco's table worked on into the lesson, mostly in silence. Draco had so far managed to achieve an auburn coloured liquid in his cauldron, which his textbook read was the near ideal colour for his potion to be at the stage he had reached. He continued adding various ingredients and stirring with a smug grin on his face as his potion slowly faded to a perfect deep crimson. Every so often Draco would peer curiously in Harry Potter's direction.

Draco soon found his mind wandering back to the run-in he'd had with Potter on the train yesterday. He couldn't help but thinking that there was something odd about Potter this year. It had been rather strange the way that Harry had just sat staring up at him when he'd first found him on the floor of the train. Maybe it was just his imagination but Draco was sure that for a brief second Potter had looked almost pleased to see him.

_Don't be ridiculous_, Draco muttered internally. _You hate Potter and he hates you. Besides, only seconds later he yelled at you and threatened to blow you up. There was something unusual about the way Harry had looked at him though. And then Harry's eyes…_

Draco gasped in fright as he glanced briefly up at Potter only to be met by the very set of bright green eyes that Draco had been thinking about staring directly into his own. For several seconds Potter's emerald eyes just glared at him as though they were participating in some unspoken staring contest. Then a loud sound of cracking glass cut into the silence of the room as the vial Draco had been holding slipped from his fingers and smashed on his desk causing everyone nearby to jump slightly in fright.

"Draco!" Pansy gasped beside him.

"Mmm…sorry," he mumbled reluctantly lowering his gaze from Potter's and looking down to see his desk covered in a spilt blue liquid and pieces of broken glass.

"Not to worry, not to worry, dear boy," Slughorn appeared behind him shaking his head at the mess Draco had created. Yet he seemed to be smiling. "Let me put that right for you." And with a swish of his wand the pieces of glass flew back together repairing themselves so that the vial was good as new again. With a second flick of his wand Slughorn made the shimmering blue liquid vanish and Draco's desk was clear again.

"Thank you Sir," Draco said picking up the glass vial and running his fingers over the repaired glass.

"Don't mention it," Slughorn nodded tucking his wand back into the inside of his robe and smoothing his walrus-moustache with his fingers. "Just try to keep a hold of your equipment in future…Mr…Mr…"

"…Malfoy!" Draco prompted sounding rather outraged that Slughorn didn't seem to know who he was.

"I am sorry, Mr. Malfoy," Slughorn apologised. "There is another bottle of mermaid-scale extract in the cabinet over there if you wish to replace that which you spilt." Draco could feel his cheeks heating up and he just nodded and made his way to the store cupboard trying to avoid eye contact with any of the students who were still watching him. That included Potter.

"Very hard to source, actually, mermaid scales…" Slughorn began to ramble as he walked off to check on the cauldrons of several Ravenclaw students at the far side of the room.

When he returned from the cupboard, Draco noticed Potter smirking at him out the corner of his eye.

"What's so funny, Potter?" he asked, glaring angrily at the Gryffindor boy.

"Nothing, just you dropping things and looking like a bit of an idiot."

"Oh, piss off Potter. It's not as if you're always in control of what you're doing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It _means_ that I don't see your potion turning red like it's supposed to," Draco nodded at Harry's cauldron full of a bubbling antidote which had turned a light shade of purple.

"At least I haven't smashed any bottles on my desk yet," said Potter defensively trying to cover his cauldron so that no one could peer at its wrongly-coloured contents.

"At least I don't go around bashing my own head open on things!" Once again Potter's hand flew up to his hair as he desperately attempted to arrange his fringe to cover the healed cut at the side of his forehead.

"Just leave it would you!" he growled angrily at Draco who just glowered and continued to stir his potion, a slight grin tugging at the corner of his lips.

"What happened to Potter's head?" Pansy was asking him a while later as they walked to their next class together.

"Oh, I don't know," said Draco, "stumbled down some stairs or something I expect."

"To be honest I hadn't even noticed he'd done something to his head until you mentioned it Draco. In fact it wasn't that noticeable at all. How come you…"

"Oh, no, it was just that, yesterday, on the train, I noticed it. It looked a lot worse then."

"Really? Hang on, when did you see Potter on the train then?"

"Oh, it wasn't for long, he was just being a prat, you know, blocking my way so I shoved him about a bit."

"So, you wounded his head?"

"No! ...I mean…no. It wasn't me that did it. I just happened to notice it yesterday… when it was worse."

Of course Draco was lying slightly. The cut on Potter's head hadn't in fact looked much worse the day before. However, Draco didn't want Pansy to make the mistake of thinking that he spent time studying Potter's face intently enough to notice things like barely visible cuts and scrapes.

"I see," Pansy said.

"Mmm."

"Draco?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure you're feeling alright? You're not sick or something," Pansy grabbed hold of Draco's sleeve, "because you've been acting a bit weirdly all morning. You hardly ate anything at breakfast. You've been reasonably quiet all morning and then in Potions dropping that glass everywhere…"

"Honestly Pansy, I feel fine. Like I said before, I'm just really tired." Draco shook Pansy off his arm and hurried forward down the corridor without looking back.

After a week of being back at Hogwarts Draco couldn't decide whether he would rather be back home at Malfoy Manor with his parents or whether he'd rather be here at school again. Part of him longed to have his own room to himself, not to have to get up for lessons, not to have to be surrounded by infuriating people. People like Potter. However, there was another part of Draco that was glad to get away. At least now that he was at school he wasn't surrounded by Death Eaters who had spent the majority of the summer waltzing in and out of Draco's house to hold meetings as though it belonged to them.

"At least here I'm safe from being drafted into Voldemort's army," Draco was muttering to himself as he strode down a third floor corridor on Friday evening. He was feeling particularly pissed off because at dinner he'd discovered that Urquhart**,** the new Slytherin Quidditch Captain for this year, was making all the members of last years team re-trial for their old positions. Everyone, which, to Draco's annoyance, included him as well.

"Honestly though," he continued to vent under his breath, "Me? Draco Malfoy, having to re-trial for Seeker?"

_Had people begun to forget who his father was or something? Had people forgotten how __rich and powerful his family were in the Wizarding world?_

Draco growled through his teeth as he advanced further down the corridor. To any other student who might have passed him Draco would probably have looked rather frightening with his robes billowing behind him as he marched rather angrily down the hall. He was just about to begin descending the staircase on his way to the dungeon when he was stopped by a muffled sound coming from behind him. He stood stock still for several seconds.

_Maybe he was just imagining things._ But then he heard it again, it was the sound of somebody screaming, a boys voice. Draco spun around expecting to see whoever was making the noise somewhere in the corridor behind him but there was no one. The sound was getting louder and he was sure he could hear other voices too but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Draco was rather unsure whether he could be bothered to find out where the sound was coming from. It was cold and getting late and he had homework to do. Several more seconds flew by as Draco pondered this but he soon found his Slytherin curiosity got the better of him as he started to rush back the way he'd come in search of the source of the raucous.

The screams and yells grew louder and louder and Draco followed them until he found himself in front of a closed classroom door. He pressed his ear up to the wood. The screaming was coming from inside, he was sure of it. He pressed himself further into the door straining to hear when the screaming stopped and Draco was able to hear a voice speaking.

"You won't be telling anyone about this little…incident," the voice was saying. The screaming was replaced by what Draco thought sounded like somebody sobbing.

"I didn't hear you!"

"No" –sob- "No…I won't" –sob, trembled the defeated sounding voice of the person crying.

"Stop snivelling and talk properly," yelled the other boy. There was a sniff and a moment of silence.

"No, I won't," said the crying boy, louder this time and without sobbing.

"That's more like it…" there was a pause which was filled with another loud sob, "…and if you do happen to let anyone find out about this you know what will happen to you, don't you Smithe?" Then there was the sound of fist hitting flesh and a loud moan of pain.

"What is it that" –sob- "I've done" –sob- "wrong?"

"You haven't _done_ anything wrong," the first boy spat angrily.

"Then why..?"

"You don't know do you? You really don't understand what you are?"

"No…I…"

Draco heard the first boy utter something inaudible under his breath and suddenly the second boy began to scream again, even more violently than before as though he was experiencing some kind of hideous torture. Draco was suddenly overcome with a feeling of urgency. He wanted desperately to know who was in the room. He rattled the doorknob frantically only to find that it wouldn't budge.

_Damn it!_

Draco tried again, ramming into the door with his shoulder but still nothing happened. The screaming was still echoing in his ears as he pushed and pulled at the door with no success. Suddenly realising how stupid he was being Draco took a step back from the door and pulled his wand from his pocket.

"Alohomora," Draco said and he tapped the knob of the door thrice with his wand. He waited but didn't hear the lock click. Just to be sure he tried to door handle again only to be disappointed as it remained lodged shut.

"What an earth is going on? What is that noise?" Draco leapt in fright as Hermione Granger came rushing up behind him looking positively terrified.

"What the hell are you doing Draco?" she gasped, her eyes coming to rest on the wand Draco still held in his extended hand. "Who is making that noise?"

"I have no idea!" Draco tried to explain, "There are two people in there and I think one of them is attacking the other."

"What are you doing standing outside the door?"

"I was trying to get in! I can't though. The door is locked. Whoever is in there has put some sort of locking charm on the door and I can't get in open!"

"Don't be ridiculous Malfoy!" yelled Granger who was getting increasingly panicked by the nature of the blood-curdling screams coming from behind the door. Granger drew her wand and rapped it on the door knob.

"Alohomora," she said, trying her best to keep her voice steady.

"I've already tried that!"

"Seriously, what is happening in there?" shrieked Granger, raising her arms in disbelief. All of a sudden the screaming stopped and an eerie silence ensued.

"We have to get in there!"

"Honestly, Malfoy, move out of the way," Granger stepped between him and the door and put her arms out, taking steps back as though herding Draco away from the door. "Just step back would you." Draco grudgingly did as he was told and backed up into the wall. Granger aimed her wand at the hinges of the door.

"Reducto," a jet of light shot from the end of Hermione's wand and hit the door causing an almighty crash and a burst of smoke as the door fell from its hinges and landed flat on the floor in front of Granger and Draco with a deafening smash.

"Fucks sake!" Draco exclaimed as he gaped at the massive wooden door which Granger has just blasted from its frame. But before Hermione had time to respond she had climbed over the door and rushed into the empty classroom. Draco hurried after her.

"Oh my god," he heard Granger gasp in front of him. He pushed past her craning his neck only to be met by the sight of a young brown haired boy curled up on the floor tears pouring uncontrollably down his flushed cheeks. The boy looked young enough to be in first or second year and was wearing Hufflepuff robes. Draco scoured the room desperately searching for where the other boy he'd heard speaking had disappeared to. He was nowhere to be seen. The rest of the room was completely empty.

"Are you alright? What happened to you?" Granger had rushed forward to comfort the young boy. The boy didn't say anything he just shook his head and continued to cry into his sleeve.

"I could hear screaming before. Are you hurt?" Granger asked with panic in her voice. Again the boy said nothing.

"Come with me. We have to take you to the hospital wing and then I'll go and report this to Dumbledore," said Granger as she tried to encourage the boy to stand up. Draco didn't know what to do he just stood and stared at the Hufflepuff boy crumpled on the floor.

_How__ the hell had the other boy managed to escape to room?_

It just didn't make any sense.


End file.
